Three doctors make for a pretty hectic schedule (especially when one of them is one of four attendings in the department), but with Trinity's oral boards in just a few months and Aftab's recent obsession with marine life (Yolanda usually let him sneak in an extra hour of television time if it was a nature documentary channel), Baran had cashed in about half the favours the ED owed her - plus a bit of blackmail material on Robby courtesy of Trinity (huckleberry did some good snooping when he lived at the attendings home) - and all three had three days off that September.

Yolanda and Baran had prepared for Trinity to go crazy as the exam drew nearer, like she had for the written portion (the entire house was covered in flash cards, the kitchen counter next to her favourite cereal, stuck to her pack of monsters, even their bathroom didn't escape the makeover. Trinity wouldn't let herself do the task next to them until she did the question on the card; and what's more, she had Dennis and Victoria come in and change the cards for a new batch every few days!). Yolanda had begrudgingly bought more energy drinks and ramen for when Trinity's late night study sessions ran well past midnight. Baran had even dug out her own old notes in case Trinity wanted some extra material. But when they were three weeks out and instead of frantically studying, Trinity was excitedly planning their trip for afterwards, both of them were extremely confused; apparently the written exams freaked trinity out and she always drew a blank when staring at paper (or a screen), but orals were her thing (in more areas than one lol), so she wasn't worried about them.

When the time finally came for the exams and the subsequent vacation, Baran called Aftab out sick from school (they were weird about absences for trips outside of school vacation time), they headed to the airport. Yolanda had splurged and gotten them all business class tickets because what else am I meant to do with all this money? Plus my baby deserves the best when she's prepping for her exams. Yolanda had taken the aisle seat next to Aftab's window (both of them had a book open on their laps, Yolanda's was taped with brown paper to hide the cover), while Baran dutifully quizzed Trinity from the seats across, tossing an M&M into her mouth every time she answered a question perfectly.

While Baran took their luggage and Aftab back to the hotel, Yolanda decided to tag along with Trinity to the conference centre where she would be having her exams, because no matter how much Trinity repeated that she was gonna make this exam my bitch, her bouncing leg betrayed the nervousness.

6 hours later when Yolanda and Trinity had finally returned to their suite room (with a pull out sofa bed for Aftab because Baran refused to let him have his own room at 9 even if it would have been connected), both looked extremely happy and the family decided to not talk of the exam for the rest of their time there.

The main event - for which Trinity had sat and researched for hours and hours, scouring web sites and reddits and even personal blogs - was the whale watching tour they were taking from Bellingham. While Baran's idea of a vacation didn't really involve waking up at 7:30 (getting four people ready with one bathroom took time), and then driving an hour and a half out of the city just to reach the right port; Aftab was actually jumping at the idea of a whale watching tour, Trinity was the good kind of restless (or at least Baran assumed that with the way she couldn't stay still throughout breakfast), and Yolanda seemed happy to do the driving, muttering something about trying out the car they rented for a purchase?

Trinity revealed her final surprise when they finally reached the port, matching bucket hats with strings so that they didn't fly away in the September wind. Both Yolanda and Baran had dutifully put them on the minute they were presented; past experience had taught them that when Trinity buys them something matching, they will end up wearing it weather they really want to or not; and surprisingly Aftab was the hold up, not wanting to seem too childish (he too put it on when his comment made Trinity deflate just the slightest, Trinity was the coolest person he knew and if she was wearing it then it would probably be fine right?)

Trinity had run up to the front of the boat with Aftab, for a photo session before the safety briefing, Yolanda had vanished to the bathroom (she still wasn't used to the large water bottles Baran made them all use), leaving Baran to try and find the quietest space on the lower deck to dump their stuff and block seats for the long 6 hour tour.

At first everything seemed well and good. Yolanda, with her long legs and endurance for standing for hours to do surgery, found her sea legs in no time, helping Aftab learn the proper way to walk around the boat safely. Baran had gotten a nice seat with sunshine spilling over into it and was just about to crack open the new mystery novel she bought for the trip when she noticed how pale Trinity was looking across from her.

Trinity had done so much research, ensured that both Yolanda and Baran were good with moving water, but had forgotten one crucial thing: Trinity Santos in her 30 years of being alive had never been on a boat and thus had no idea that she could get sea sick.

Yolanda and Aftab had come in and helped them relocate to the open deck above since it was open, with multiple barf bags just in case. Aftab got to see 5 whales total, a pod of three orcas, and a mother-child pair of humpback whales; they made sure that there was an adult with him at all times, while the other was gently rubbing Trinity's back.